Six Stories, Four Continents, One Gospel: A Reflection on Summer Mission Trips

In a new context and unfamiliar culture, with long-term missionaries and members of the local church, these students glean a deeper understanding of the Great Commission. They see God at work through his church in ways that defy expectations and clarify the missionary task. And lostness becomes more tangible with each new face, every gospel conversation, and — for some — the call to prayer reverberating from the mosque next door.

People Created for a Purpose

As Taylor and her husband, David, prepared to embark on their trip to the country of Slovenia, Taylor began preparing her heart.

This was her first time traveling out of the States, she explained. Visiting a country sitting in the shadow of the Alps, Taylor feared that her love for creation would take precedence over her love for the lost.

“In a country as beautiful and peaceful as Slovenia,” Taylor shared, “distractions could have easily stolen my attention from our goal of being there.”

“My desire,” she said, “was to guard my heart from seeing this trip as anything other than an opportunity to share the love of Christ and proclaim the gospel to a group of people who do not know of the hope found in Christ.”

Over the course of the trip, Taylor, David, and their Southeastern team worked closely with the local church and missionaries on the ground, witnessing their gospel ministry firsthand.

“In the early days of our trip, our team spent five days at a retreat center in Luce, Slovenia, to prepare and participate in a training retreat for local believers that are being trained to serve as leadership for church planting within Slovenia,” Taylor recounted.

The latter half of the trip consisted of street evangelism in the capital city.

For Taylor and David, this trip served as an opportunity to evaluate and consider their own callings and passions for missions.

“We feel that this trip has brought significant insight into the importance of our emphasis on the global church within our local church ministry,” shared Taylor.

We feel that this trip has brought significant insight into the importance of our emphasis on the global church within our local church ministry.

“While we both felt a call to missions at a young age, our love and desire to serve the local church has grown over the past few years.”

And so Taylor and David have been praying for months, seeking wisdom and clarity.

“In the last five months,” Taylor shared, “we have been presented with the opportunity to serve the local church in Florida with young adults.”

“In this new ministry context that David and I will be serving in, we have the opportunity to do a similar project as the one we participated in during the retreat for local leaders in Slovenia. As we serve the young adults ministry in Florida, we have the opportunity to identify future leaders within our local church, provide training that will equip and encourage them to be disciple-making disciples, and walk alongside them as they discern and live out the calling that God has given each of them.”

One day, Taylor said, they hope to return to Slovenia, bringing these young adults with them so that they, too, can consider God’s call to the mission field.

Reflecting back on this summer’s trip to Slovenia, Taylor recalled again the beauty of the country, but now with a different perspective.

“In seeing the beauty of Slovenia,” she said, “I am also overwhelmed by the amount of people in Slovenia that do not know the one who created it.”

“The more I interacted with the culture and the people, I was reminded that God created these people for a purpose, and my heart was drawn to share the hope that is for all people.”

The Faithful Heart of the Lord

On the other side of the equator, during the month of July, a team from Southeastern participated in a women’s counseling conference in Zambia where students had the opportunity to engage with local believers and teach during the conference.

“Being able to share the gospel and serve overseas for a short period of time was an honor and a blessing,” shared one student, Karissa. “I was able to learn about the Zambian culture as well as serve alongside brothers and sisters seeking to love the Lord and the global church well. I was constantly reminded of God’s heart for the nations and our calling as believers to go and make disciples.”

However, during this unique visit, Karissa had an opportunity not only to serve but also to learn from those around her.

“To see women utilize their gifts of teaching as well as their heart to encourage, serve, and strengthen other women was amazing,” she recalled. “I learned so much from my classmates, professors, and the Zambian women about the Lord and his heart while I was in Zambia.”

She also saw the local church at work — both the church in Zambia and the church from back home, represented by her teammates.

“I am reminded time and time again of the Lord’s faithfulness to continue his work on earth through the faithfulness of believers,” Karissa said.

To the person considering going on a mission trip, she offered this encouragement: “God calls us to go and make disciples of all nations. You will experience the global church in a new way, and you will also learn from the passion and heart other brothers and sisters have from around the world.”

In the Middle of the Night

On a different continent entirely, in Southeast Asia, Corban and his Southeastern team found themselves surrounded by darkness and constant reminders of the need for the gospel. Their visit to the country coincided with an important Islamic holiday.

“The hotel our team was staying in was situated in between four different mosques,” Corban recalled. “Throughout the night, the Muslim call to prayer continued to ring out.”

Each mosque alternated its call to prayer, leaving those in the vicinity with 30 seconds of silence before the summons began again.

“In the early hours of the morning, I remember being on my knees by my bed, praying for the people of this city,” said Corban. “My heart was broken and burdened; I had never felt so surrounded by lostness in this physical form before.”

My heart was broken and burdened; I had never felt so surrounded by lostness in this physical form before.

With the experience of the night before still fresh in his heart and mind, Corban sought to share the gospel with his waiter in a cafe the next day. While the conversation did not result in a confession of faith, Corban could see it had an impact on the waiter.

“Through my trip, the Lord opened my eyes to what gospel sharing truly looks like in a culturally Islamic context,” he shared. “Gospel conversations do not always end with salvation. Sometimes one conversation is the starting point of planting the seed of truth.”

While traveling throughout Southeast Asia, Corban also learned the importance of thinking on his feet and being prepared.

“Each place we traveled to presented different Islamic beliefs or even Buddhist beliefs,” he said. “While the gospel never changes, the way we share it must adapt to the culture around us.”

A Backyard Mission Field

“I honestly did not have too many expectations heading into this trip. I grew up in Idaho, so I was very familiar with the Mormon community,” shared Southeastern student Joey, as he recounted his experience on the school’s summer mission trip to Utah.

“I do not feel a call to be a full-time missionary and never grew up in the church,” he explained, “so this was my first mission trip.”

The experience opened his eyes to a reality he had not seen before: the overwhelming presence of the Mormon Church (LDS). In fact, in the city of Kaysville where the team visited a North American Mission Board church plant, population estimates put the city at 90% LDS.  Meanwhile, the state of Utah contains an evangelical presence of less than 2%, classifying it as “unreached.”

“There are many false worldviews circulating our nation and culture,” Joey shared, “but the LDS church currently has over 80,000 missionaries around the world. God opened my eyes to the need for Christians to not only consider the unreached people groups around the world but also this strong, influential false church in our backyard.”

God opened my eyes to the need for Christians to not only consider the unreached people groups around the world but also this strong, influential false church in our backyard.

Over the course of the trip, Joey grew in his understanding of the LDS church and what it meant to engage with its members — many of whom, he realized, did not understand how their theology differed from the truth of the Christian gospel.

“While there are many LDS members who know their church’s writings well, there are just as many lukewarm, cultural Mormons who simply identify as LDS because they were raised a certain way,” Joey explained.

He realized the importance of understanding Mormon teachings so that he could effectively engage in conversations.

Since the LDS is a spiritual community, Joey said, “so many people are willing to have these in-depth conversations. It is imperative that this is not done from a place of trying to prove a point or win an argument. Rather, we are to engage out of an overflow of love for someone who needs Jesus and out of a willingness to not just share the gospel but lovingly challenge them.”

Joey saw this love clearly on display through the efforts of the local church plant he and his team worked alongside. Through this congregation’s ministry, he was reminded of God’s purpose for the church: that they would serve as witnesses to a watching world.

“They were handing out flyers in neighborhoods, putting on cookouts at the local park, handing water bottles out at parades — they were desperate and willing to go to great lengths to engage the community,” Joey recalled. “The best part about it was, it worked. There were dozens of gospel conversations and relationships built that the Lord will continue to use. What a strong reminder that the church is God’s ‘plan A’ for saving the world, and there is no ‘plan B.’”

The Great Commission Work of the Local Church

Wyatt, serving on the team in Slovenia with Taylor and David, had a similar experience as he watched God’s people at work. There, he found himself greatly encouraged by the vibrancy and intentionality of the local church on the ground.

“The first-generation Slovenian believers are so on fire for the Lord and eager to reach the lost people around them,” Wyatt said.

For these believers, the local church served as a lifeline of community and discipleship.

“The most impactful memory from the trip for me was talking to a few believers who drive over an hour every day just to gather at a healthy local church,” Wyatt shared.

“Another impactful memory was eating dinner with some of the missionaries and local believers at one of the missionaries’ homes. This was formative for me because it helped me see life-on-life discipleship in action!”

Through his time in Slovenia, Wyatt gained a deeper understanding of the importance of both discipleship and a healthy church body. The two must exist together.

“The Lord really used this trip to show me how easy it can be to take good discipleship for granted and fail to replicate it in the lives the Lord has put around me,” he shared. “The Lord also continued to remind me time after time on this trip how vital the local church is in making disciples.”

The Lord really used this trip to show me how easy it can be to take good discipleship for granted and fail to replicate it in the lives the Lord has put around me.

“For disciples to make reproducing disciples, there must be a healthy and committed relationship to a healthy local church, and that is something I needed to be reminded of before beginning my first job in ministry,” Wyatt said.

On Sunday morning, Wyatt and his team worshiped alongside the missionaries and Slovenia believers, and Wyatt witnessed firsthand the Great Commission heart of the small congregation and its zeal to plant churches from its midst.

“This was the Great Commission at work, and it was so encouraging to see it in action as the church reached a nation in desperate need of the gospel.”

“Participating in God’s Mission”

God is at work, and his plan is greater than ours. He equips his church, and his faithfulness endures forever.

While attending the conference in Zambia with her Southeastern team, Stephanie saw these truths unfold in the lives of the women she met and in the opportunities God placed before her.

“This trip was particularly meaningful to me as it provided a clearer picture of the global church and how God is moving and working in other places in the world,” she said. “Many of the women in attendance at the conference had been following the Lord for longer than I had been alive. While we were able to provide some theological education that they had limited access to, they had amazing testimonies of God’s faithfulness in their lives.”

“A short-term trip like this has great impact when it supports the church that is already there to continue participating in God’s mission,” Stephanie said. God impressed on her the limits of what she could accomplish during her visit. But after she and her team left the country, the local church would remain and continue its gospel work.

“I saw clearly how much God loves the church in Zambia and is empowering them to do the work of ministry. Nothing about this trip depended on me, yet God still used me to help encourage and teach these women.”

While traveling back to the States, with her heart full of stories and the faithfulness of God, Stephanie encountered a man in the Lusaka airport selling books. She and the stranger began a conversation, during which she shared about her interests in theology. This piqued the man’s interest.

“He asked me many questions,” Stephanie recalled, “like, ‘How do we know if the Bible is true? How do we read the Bible? And what do the different denominations believe?’ I was able to share some of the content of our conference with him and encouraged him to find a local church in Zambia to learn more.”

 

Are you interested in participating in a Southeastern mission trip or supporting those who go? Visit thecgcs.org/trips to sign up or read more about our upcoming trips to cities in the U.S. and countries around the world.